Millions of people worldwide participate in physical exercise. While most people work on their abdominal muscles or cardiovascular system, few people concentrate on facial muscles. Yet those muscles are critical to health and well-being. Proper exercise of the facial muscles can improve dental health and minimize painful macro-facial conditions such as TMJ. Proper exercising of the facial muscles can noticeably improve physical appearance.
A number of patents have issued in the field of facial exercise apparatuses. All have typically included complex and uncomfortable structure and apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,043 discloses an exercise device for exercising muscles of the face, jaw and neck, featuring an elongated strap with two releasable attachable ends and an elastic portion to provide resistance for muscle exercise. A visible scale to determine the force provided by the elastic portion through the provision of indicia on the exterior surface of the elongated strap which visually shows the increasing and decreasing stretch of the elastic portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,148 discloses a facial exercise mask includes an Air is pumped between the lining and the inner surface of the mask body to inflate the lining which provides the resistive force for the facial muscles to work against.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,053 discloses a chin and face toning strap including an elongated strap portion dimensioned for wrapping underneath a chin and atop head of a user. A pair of magnets are secured within the cheek portions of the elongated strap portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,747 discloses a one piece face and neck exerciser. A critical feature is a neck band to which two elongated beginners' neck resistance bands are attached into neck grooves extending outwardly and up to be permanently attached to the lateral sides of the chin cup. Increased resistance is provided by the use of additional resistance bands.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,857 discloses an apparatus for exercising the face and neck comprises a frame with multiple perforations in its upper and lower parts for fastening flexible bands of various size and elasticity horizontally, vertical or at angles to produce elastic resistance fields for receiving a person's face to exercise facial muscles. Two ocular accessories with adjustable sockets are positioned within the frame on the flexible bands for exercise of the opening and closing of the eyelid. Support and fastening elements firmly retain the bands and accessories in place on the frame for exercising the facial muscles. A portable version of the apparatus provides handles for manually controlling the muscular pressure of the flexible bands on the facial and neck muscles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,028 discloses a facial mask, that when applied to the skin as a liquid latex formulation, will dry to a rubberized consistency creating a resistance to facial muscle movement similar to the resistance bands used in home exercise machines. This resistance is increased by adding additional layers of the mask. Once exercises are complete, the mask is removed by simply peeling it from the skin, leaving the skin feeling soft and muscles of the face feeling firm and taut.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,254 discloses a sensor device to detect and signal the exercise or movement of a subject's craniofacial and cervical muscles that includes a trigger attached to the subject, sensitive to movement in at least one direction and communicating with a signal emitter in order to emit an appropriate signal upon the sensing of movement that indicates the performance of the exercise.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,787 discloses an acupressure apparatus for applying vibrational pressure evenly to a plurality of pre-selected points on a shaded portion of a living body such as upon the face thereof includes a housing and a flexible membrane secured to the housing to form an enclosed chamber between the housing and the flexible membrane for containing therein a liquid
U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,141 discloses an exercise mask which includes an externally convex mask body made of an elastic two-way stretch cloth material. A central face portion has holes for eyes, nose and mouth of the wearer. Massive lead or omnium weights are enclosed in pockets secured inside the mask at b row, temple, cheek, nose and chin portions. A sanitary, flexible removable liner may be inserted inside the mask body
U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,092 discloses a facial mask for use in effecting isometric toning of facial muscles comprises a plurality of shaped pressure applicators located to overlie the termination points of selected facial muscles, and an expansible chamber located such that when the chamber is expanded, it causes the pressure applicators to apply pressure to the termination points of the selected facial muscles. The facial mask may further include a mouthpiece to be received in the user's mouth and to be bitingly engaged by the user's teeth for anchoring the user's mastication muscles and for tensioning the user's facial muscles around the lips during use of the device. The pressure applicators may also include surface electrodes for sensing EMG (electromyogram) signals produced by the muscles to provide an indication of whether the proper muscles are being exercised.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,778 discloses an exercise device including a series of stiffeners.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20040220445 discloses a flexible and elastic magnetic joint wraps incorporate super strong magnets with alternating polarities to provide enhanced magneto therapeutic effects. Magneto therapeutic joint wraps that are flexible and elastic incorporate super strong magnets in an attachably detachable manner so as to provide magneto therapy to joints and surrounding tissues. NEOPRENE.RTM. or the like may incorporate super strong magnets such as those based on iron (magnetic ferrite) or neodymium (particularly neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB)) in order to provide super strong static magnetism by which magneto therapy may be affected.
While there have been a number of exercise devices on the market, the devices have included a variety of additional or complex mechanical structures or uncomfortable structures such as eye socket attachments.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel face exercising device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a face exercising device which can be easily placed upon the face of the wearer.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a face exercising device which can be easily adjusted.
It is another object of the invention to provide a device which tightens and tones all major muscles of the face and neck. This includes the jaw line, forehead, cheeks, eyelids, around and under the eyes, around the mouth, under the jaw, and the front and back of the neck.
It is an object of the invention to provide a device which smoothes away wrinkles in all areas that it exercises, tightens and tones.
It is a further object to provide a system that lifts saggy or droopy skin in all areas that it exercises, tightens and tones.